Which is what makes THP unlike any other. The staff writers here do a great job releasing their reviews, and then opening it up to the entire forum for further reviews, results, comparisons and opinions. The release/review article is the beginning, the 100s and 100s of posts of follow up provides so much more information and content.
Exactly. Read the review, then dive in to the thread.
I think this is important. Comparisons can often leave people with the wrong conclusion given how subjective the data is based on the person swinging. The audience has to go in knowing that, but you can’t guarantee every reader understands that and someone may walk away with a wrong conclusion for their game. I mean look at how many of those comparison videos are done on YT where they hit 5 balls with a driver and say distance is same, not worth it.
I'm not really sure what differentiates release articles from reviews. Both seem to include the same information about materials used for construction, internal head weighting, head adjustability etc... For a club release article that manufacturer's information is fine but for a club review I would like to read and, or hear about how the new club compared to the brand's previous generation club (ball flight, impact sound etc...) , and how it performs compare to a competitor or two. I believe this is the criteria consumers are looking for when considering a new purchase. Also, stock shaft information for the club (s) being reviewed is for the most part ignored, and that is a major factor to how the club(s) will play.
Tact is useful.
What good are head to head comparisons if the type of player doing it is totally different from your swing?
I'm quoting this because you're saying what I believe to be the issue with comparison or absolute equipment reviews. If the commentary is as shallow as whether it worked for one swing, it's not going to benefit the other 99.9% of golfers to read/watch it. This is the reason why I almost never use YouTube as a resource for equipment education because it's rarely a celebration of the tech, and regularly something different.
I get it right, sometimes.
Agendas happen. Everywhere. It’s not always intentional but they are there.
I think the fact that a lot of people get fit for clubs and end up in completely different gear across all brands, shows how one person’s conclusion of “best” does not mean much to the next person, hence comparisons are pretty meaningless when it comes to doing real research on new gear that best fits your game.
This is how a club review should be. Throw some pics and some basic numbers off the sim and I’m cool with it. Dan from Canada and I will NEVER play the same clubs (he sucks way less than I do), but I’ve seen him review some that I have been interested in. So when he’s talking about off center hits, low/high on the face, and ball flight/distance on those, I’m paying attention because that’s where my strikes tends to be. To be clear, it’s any reviewer, not just him, that I’m paying attention to dispersion on those off center hits.
Consider that here at this forum there have been some legendary-iconic clubs enjoyed by what seems like a majority of THP members. For example the famous Cleveland Mashie hybrids. There was probably a 100 plus page thread here which went on for years including testimonials of the high trajectory soft landing shots which that club line produced for so many players. So instead of a theoretical tech story the review (s) were real on course results, which is relevant and useful to consumers shopping for a new club (s).
No doubt. I like the club articles here because it is the facts of what the club is and what the tech is supposed to do.
The product release articles are at launch and give the details of the product. Once it gets into the forum you have all different kinds of posts on what the clubs did for specific people. There are a ton of clubs that are praised here that I didn't get along with and vice versa. There are a lot of folks that provide launch monitor data and a lot that don't. Also since there are a lot of forum people that have met and played a round or two with each other they get an idea of some people they can take their word for it more than others. I play with a lot of THP guys here in AZ and every range session I get there early to hit other people's clubs. They can hit mine as well. It works out pretty good. The last experience I went to I didn't really hit that many other clubs because there was a strange amount of lefties.
You and I seem to agree that the forum based threads on these clubs are incredible tools to read how golfers with various swings/skills react to these products.
